Doris, your valiant attempt at reasonable discussion with a obvious instigator is beyond admirable. Some people are just not worth giving the time of day, much less attempting to engage in rational conversation. Whomever this person is, she is not open to reason. He/She merely wants to get anyone's goat who happens to like D/W. It's not worth your or anyone else's time time to continue to argue with this person.

For a long time, you have held it against me that in a thread where amateur fans took over the coaches' chair and offered gratuitous advice to all dance teams for the following year, that I thought both Charlie and Tessa could use acting lessons. It was a for-fun thread, not a serious one. There were a lot of jokes in it.

But what makes me laugh is that one team actually took acting lessons this last year, Kaitlyn Weaver & Andrew Poje. And look at what a great result on the ice it had for them this year in their Je Suis Malade program! Cheers to them!!! (And it seems my advice was pretty good advice.)

I still think that acting lessons would be good advice for both V&M and D&W. And for any other teams interested in improving that side of their performance.

There are many people more knowledgeable about lots of things than I am, including ice dance. I would perhaps appreciate your expertise better if you actually backed up your claims well and didn't resort so often to hyperbole.

There is a saying, "Every mother crow thinks her own little crow is the blackest." However, Meryl Davis is not my own little crow, and she doesn't need my protection. She is a very good ice dancer, getting better, but not the best ever. She is not God either, nor do I think she is. If you posted that Meryl was God or the best ever, I would wonder what life changing experience had suddenly happened to you.

I've rarely seen provocation as blatant, Doris (or as petulant!), as that of our visitor. But your rebuttals were so detailed that they gave me (and I'm sure other readers) a lot of interesting and useful information, so it was worthwhile. As you say, Meryl doesn't need us to defend her, though many would be willing to leap into the fray on her account. Thanks for pointing out ways in which Davis/White have improved. I generally don't know what to look for to that degree of detail: I need to be amply prepared by those more astute on the actual moves than I am.

But we have to come up with some other abbreviation Grushina/Goncharov besides G/G. Every time I saw those initials here, my first reflex was to think, "Oh, no! Why are they saying that Gordeyeva and Grinkov were so bad? Was I wrong all these years? Don't I know anything?" This is very stressful.

I've rarely seen provocation as blatant, Doris (or as petulant!), as that of our visitor. But your rebuttals were so detailed that they gave me (and I'm sure other readers) a lot of interesting and useful information, so it was worthwhile. As you say, Meryl doesn't need us to defend her, though many would be willing to leap into the fray on her account. Thanks for pointing out ways in which Davis/White have improved. I generally don't know what to look for to that degree of detail: I need to be amply prepared by those more astute on the actual moves than I am.

But we have to come up with some other abbreviation Grushina/Goncharov besides G/G. Every time I saw those initials here, my first reflex was to think, "Oh, no! Why are they saying that Gordeyeva and Grinkov were so bad? Was I wrong all these years? Don't I know anything?" This is very stressful.

+1 on this comment! I agree with Olympia; Doris, you have done a great job providing some insightful information and even though you won't change one persistent poster's mind, you have certainly have increased the insight for the rest of us. I'm just starting to really watch ice dance more seriously. Like many other posters here, my long-term interest in the sport has always been in singles skating. It wasn't until Belbin and Agosto captured the silver medal 2006 Olympics did I watch the discipline more seriously.

I know some people here believe the COP has ruined Ice Dance, but in my view it's because of COP that I'm watching Ice Dance today. Before all I could see was that there was drama in ice dance. Now I can watch for twizzles, step sequences, lifts, etc. Not only that, COP also helped me appreciate those who competed under 6.0 because I could identify what exactly they were doing.

What COP has done for me is to help me understand why Linichuk & Karponsov were the 1st Russian team and Moiseeva & Minenkov the second Russian team. M&M had musicality & beautiful lines, and created beautiful pictures on the ice, but their programs were really mostly done on two feet, without very much in the way of complex steps, in relatively open holds.

Misha, the commentator is John Misha Petkevich, a men's singles skater from the US, known for his beautiful lines and musicality (and his ability to screw up at Worlds). He was the founder of the Harvard Evening with Champions Jimmy Fund show.

In recognition of his combination of beauty and tendency to finish out the the medals:

Petkevich was the recipient of an unusual trophy. At the 1947 World Figure Skating Championships, Ulrich Salchow was particularly impressed by Dick Button's skating, and gave him one of his own trophies. Following the 1972 Olympics, Button passed on Salchow's trophy to Petkevich, who has stated that he also intends to keep up the tradition by presenting it to another young skater someday.

I just realized I didn't get to see Samuelson and Gilles' programs at all. :(

Their FD was fabulous!!! The new lifts they used were interesting and created some beautiful positions like in the curved lift. Definite improvements in their SD but they seemed a little off in spots. Really liked the rumba they added at the beginning of the SD especially Emily's moves.

Well, that was thoroughly enjoyable..I was only a bit miffed that we didn't get to see two flights ( I wanted to see how Emily and Todd have progressed ).

I don't know , guys , I thought Tracey said some pretty nice things about Meryl and Charlie ( and well-deserved , too.) I loved how she pointed out how each of them comes to the fore at different parts of the music , according to their individual characteristics .. Meryl on the light, delicate bits and Charlie on the sweeping bits... It is a fabulous program for them.

I simply adore the Shibs..but I still think Latin is a tough sell for them . Just the luck of the draw , this year.

Thrilled for Madison and Zach. Camerlengo's rep gets another boost. I know it was pretty serendipitous that they meshed so well from the outset , and you can see they've put in the work..Still , Pasquale knew exactly what to do with them. Kudos all round... I must say though , I preferred the black t-shirt for Zach ... for this program.

Tough for Lynn and Logan ( loved this dress ). I like them very much , but can't say I would have preferred another outcome.I like their program, but thought they noticeably had to work it, today.

You know, I think it was bad luck for L/L to have M/Z skate right after them. The two programs were similar enough on the surface, with the contemporary music and even the wardrobe colors, to draw clear comparisons. I think Camerlengo's program is much better designed in terms of musicality; the way the musical arrangement builds from the a cappella section to the strings, the piano section, the jazzy/scatting break, etc., and also in terms of showcasing the best strengths of his team, with the long lines and flow/speed.

By direct contrast the music choice for L/L was too simplistic, going "bam bam" again and again, and the choreography and the music together didn't seem to communicate a clear concept/feel either. What was the character of the program supposed to be: funny, sad, sultry? Because I saw stylings and emoting that were all over the place. In this case I think a concept that wasn't fully conceived ended up eclipsing the skaters' overall impression because the whole thing came off in a way that wasn't cohesive or polished enough.

You know, I think it was bad luck for L/L to have M/Z skate right after them. The two programs were similar enough on the surface, with the contemporary music and even the wardrobe colors, to draw clear comparisons. I think Camerlengo's program is much better designed in terms of musicality; the way the musical arrangement builds from the a cappella section to the strings, the piano section, the jazzy/scatting break, etc., and also in terms of showcasing the best strengths of his team, with the long lines and flow/speed.

By direct contrast the music choice for L/L was too simplistic, going "bam bam" again and again, and the choreography and the music together didn't seem to communicate a clear concept/feel either. What was the character of the program supposed to be: funny, sad, sultry? Because I saw stylings and emoting that were all over the place. In this case I think a concept that wasn't fully conceived ended up eclipsing the skaters' overall impression because the whole thing came off in a way that wasn't cohesive or polished enough.

Interesting analysis. OTOH, while others seem to be taken with H/D's program, I just think it's OK. K/G-S' music is definitely redundant and, being familiar with the original version of the song, the character does switch back and forth throughout. I preferred C/B's program over either of these two. K/G-S also didn't start out with that costuming. Why they would go to that color scheme, I don't know.